A shopping trip for Thanksgiving groceries turned tragic for Kerman family members when Patrick Russell slammed his two-ton pickup truck into their vehicle on Van Dyke.
Russell, 62, of Roseville, the truck driver, was sentenced in Macomb County Circuit Court in Mount Clemens on Wednesday to 20 to 40 years in prison after pleading no contest to second-degree murder in the November 2011 death of Mary Kerman, 92, of Sterling Heights.
Kerman was the mother of seven children, grandmother of 13 and great grandmother to more than 20. She lived with her daughter, Annette Goze, and son-in-law, Mike Goze.
“My mother was a young 92,” Annette Goze, told the judge. “As the matriarch of our large family, she’s greatly missed. We all loved her and delighted in her witty and jovial personality.”
The Gozes were with Kerman when she died. Kerman was in the front passenger seat of the Honda Civic stopped in a turnaround on Van Dyke north of 15 Mile Road. Russell, who was under the influence of cocaine and a prescription drug, drove the Ford F-150 pickup truck that swerved across the lanes of southbound Van Dyke and jumped up into the median before barreling into the Civic.
Kerman died instantly while Mike Goze, now 73, who was driving, suffered broken ribs, a concussion and shoulder injury, Annette Goze, now 69, who was in the back seat, suffered a head injury.
Goze said she took her mother for an outing every Saturday, including Nov. 19, 2011.
“My husband and I decided to do some last minute grocery shopping for the Thanksgiving holiday; Mom came along with us,” she said. “However, this was not a typical Saturday. After this Saturday, my life would never be the same again.”
Goze described the 4 p.m. crash.
“We stopped at the light, waiting for the light to turn green. As we waited, an explosion racked the car as Mr. Russell’s truck hit us broadside,” she said. “I awakened from this nightmare as EMS workers extracted me from the car. … My mother was crushed by Russell’s car. I was sitting behind her and witnessed her death.
“The nightmare continues to this day,” she said, saying the incident has caused her physical, mental and emotional problems, strained relationships and created financial burdens.
The family filed a civil lawsuit against Russell and an insurance company.
The sentencing ended a lengthy legal battle, prolonged by Russell pleading to the original charge that could have resulted in a 14-year sentence and withdrawing his plea, prosecutors adding the murder charge, and Russell pleading again. Second-degree murder is punishable by up to life in prison, and the original charge, driving under the influence causing death, is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
Ultimately, Judge Mark Switalski and Russell’s defense attorney, Dennis Johnston, reached a deal with a 20-year cap for the minimum, below the sentencing guideline range of 26 to 83 years in prison.
County Assistant Prosecutor Steven Fox opposed the deal, but Kerman’s three children didn’t object because they didn’t want to relive the experience in a trial. But they wanted assurance Russell will never be free again to possibly harm someone else. They didn’t like that Switalski granted Russell 488 days of credit for time-served, thereby reducing his sentence by 16 months.
Kerman’s son, Mike Kerman, noted Russell’s long criminal history, which includes 21 felonies, albeit many of them are relatively minor and nonviolent drug offenses, as well as 15 misdemeanors.
“There’s nothing in his history … that says if you leave him out on the streets again he won’t do that same thing,” Kerman said.
The family also expressed displeasure because they believe Russell should have been in jail at the time of the crash. He was on probation and had committed new offenses – three counts of possession of analogues -- two days before the crash.
“It’s absolutely amazing the defendant was out on bond at the time of the offense,” Fox said, saying the pre-incident cases were under the guise of district court judges. “He was out on conditional bond, and now Mary Kerman is no longer part of this world.”
But he added later outside court, “If any judge could have foreseen what happened, they would’ve revoked his bond.”
The family also wasn’t happy that the prior judge in the case, circuit judge Matthew Switalski, whose caseload was later taken over by his brother, Mark, reduced Russell’s bond, which allowed for him to post and get released, after which he was charged with additional offenses.
Matthew Switalski on Feb. 6, 2012, lowered the bond from $500,000 cash or surety to $100,000 cash or surety, with an alcohol and GPS tether required upon release, according to court records. Action Bail Bonds posted his bond four days later.
Eight months later while the case was still pending, Russell was charged with felon in possession of a firearm, possession of less than 25 grams of a controlled substance and maintaining a drug house. He was sentenced to two to 15 years in prison for that and the prior case.
A woman who said she was Russell’s ex-wife and friend but did not want to be named said outside court Russell never intended to hurt anyone and was under the influence of a prescription drug given to him following a recent surgery.
“He’s a good man, he’s an intelligent man who made some bad choices,” she said.
Johnston contended that Russell, who says he has no memory of the incident, was unconscious at the time and not voluntarily in control of the vehicle. A witness saw him pass out in his vehicle at Van Dyke and Metropolitan Parkway minutes before the crash. Johnston called the murder charge “out of the ordinary” for this type of case.
But Fox retorted, “This is exactly the type of case that second-degree murder is designed for. What’s the difference if he took a gun and started firing down the middle of Van Dyke?
“This is exactly why we build prisons. We have every reason in the world that this man should never see the light of day again.”